Conducting an estate sale may work for some people in certain situations depending on their priorities for the estate liquidation and home cleanout project. But an estate sale isn’t often the right way to go for people who recognize that time is money. The same for people wise enough to recognize that the top priority is getting the house sold after a loved one dies or a downsizing move to a smaller home. If you ignore our best advice and insist on running an estate sale, you should at least arm yourself with the following questions to ask estate sale companies before you sign on the dotted line.
But let’s back up a step first.
Do a little homework and check out 13 reasons you should not opt for an estate sale. Then peruse how problems with estate sales can start the first time an estate sale company visits your home of the one you’re responsible for.
What is an estate sale?
An estate sale in general terms is a sale conducted at your home, often by a professional estate sale company. There are two main types of estate sales.
- Sales conducted at your home attended by (hopefully) massive numbers of people who buy items with price tags on them. Prices are determined by the estate sale company hosting the sale. The companies may or may not consider lower offers, and may or may not discount prices as the sale drags on. These are sometimes called “tag sales.”
- Estate auctions conducted online. An estate sale/estate liquidation company or auction house photographs and lists items in your home. Bidding starts at $1. Winners come to pick up their items on a given day and time.
We could go into more details but let’s not go further into the weeds here.
Here are the first three questions to ask estate sale companies before you hire one — fees and commissions.
You should ask any and all companies the same questions. Even us — in the rare cases we
might agree to offer either kind of estate sale. (We’re far more likely to conduct an online estate auction for you. We’d rather stick forks in our eyeballs than run another old-fashioned sale with hoards of people bickering about items priced at $2.)
- Will you provide a comprehensive written contract that stipulates all details of the sale you propose to conduct for me? This is a no-brainer. Say goodbye to any company that won’t provide thorough details in writing.
- Â Which type of sale do you propose? Make sure you know if you’re looking at No. 1 or No. 2 above.
- What is your commission? Commissions may range in the 30 to 50-percent range. The number depends on the type of sale and the value of the contents.
- How much of the work will I have to do? Some estate sale and estate auction companies don’t do the set up work. They require you to organize the home’s contents so that they can come in, photograph and list the items, and leave. This requires you to do a lot of work, or hire a professional to do it for you.
Hidden estate sale an estate auction fees and staff size
- Do you charge any kind of set-up fee? Some companies do. Others don’t. Ask if there other hidden fees such as photography fees, marketing fees or others. (We recently worked with one client after she used an online estate auction company that stipulated the company kept every dollar of the first $3,800 in sales.)
- How many staff members will be working my sale? Many companies send very few — and they primarily sit at the front door collecting payments. The more staff, the better the service and the more the cash register rings. (Orion’s Attic heavily staffs our sales, enabling us to provide outstanding customer service.)
- Will your staff remove bulky, heavy items from my home and deliver them to a buyer’s car or truck? Let a bunch of random people start yanking furniture around and your house will suffer damage. Orion’s Attic always provides the muscle to move objects out for buyers. This also made them more inclined to make the purchases.
Precautions and pricing philosophies.
- What precautions will you take to prevent sleazy buyers from committing a range of dirty deeds? The Washington Post ran an article with unscrupulous resellers bragging about how they cheated estate sale companies and their clients. (Larger staff sizes like we use nips that garbage in the bud.)
- What are your pricing philosophies and sales objectives? Dispatch any potential company with no clear answer. The unspoken truth there is often that many estate sale companies want to sell as much as they can with as little work as humanly possible. Orion’s Attic’s philosophy is that we price items at numbers that are fair to buyers, sellers and us. Our sales objective is very simple. We always to sell as many items as possible for fair prices and leave clients with as little as possible remaining in the home. And we’ll work our asses of to do it.
What happens after the sale.
- Who is responsible for all unsold items remaining in the home after the sale? Some estate sale companies walk out the door the moment the sale ends and wishes you good luck. Others provide a cleanout service for a fee. Be sure to ask what those fees are. The cleanout fee can often be more profitable for the company than the sale itself. This is another reason companies may not do their best to get things sold.
- What happens to the items that didn’t sell at my estate sale? Some estate sale companies may stipulate that they will take it all to charity. Others will throw it all away. (This is unconscionable to us. We are the green choice for your estate liquidation projects for a reason. We handled leftovers the same way we do our regular estate liquidation and home cleanout service. We take sellable items to auction for you, donations to charity on your behalf, and haul away the trash.) All additional revenues should go to you. It’s your stuff!
Contact us today! Orion’s Attic is a full-service estate liquidation, downsizing and home cleanout company based in Silver Spring, Maryland. We also buy antiques and collectibles. We serve Montgomery County (Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Gaithersburg, Germantown, Olney, Potomac, Rockville, Silver Spring, Wheaton, Takoma Park, etc.), Baltimore County, Frederick County, Howard County, Prince George’s County, and the greater metro Washington D.C., Maryland, Northern Virginia) area.
Learn more about liquidating estates in our Estate Liquidation and Downsizing Guide.
Learn more about selling all kinds of collectibles in Sell Us Your Stuff.
